Course Announcement! (for Fall 2014)
Imaging Drugs in the Brain
ENAS 880a / NSCI 523a
Details
Course Time: Tues 3:30-5:15pm
Course Location: TAC N205
First class: Tues Sept 2, 2014
Instructors
Prof Evan Morris, Diagnostic Radiology, Biomedical Engineering --().
Prof Kelly Cosgrove, Psychiatry --- ()
Prof Michelle Hampson, Diagnostic Radiology ---- ()
contact instructors with inquiries
last year’s syllabus (to be revised) found here:
http://tauruspet.med.yale.edu/staff/edm42/courses/ENAS_880_2013/index.html
Oncourse links coming soon
Format: Weekly seminars to cover current and classic literature on functional imaging research into affects of drugs (licit and illicit) on brain chemistry. Readings taken from (mostly) journal articles; occasional reviews and book chapters on PET, SPECT, and fMRI.
· Students deliver brief summaries of papers the day before class. (required)
· Classes begin with short lectur-ettes on relevant technical details and methods.
· Lively discussions follow.
· Participants: Graduate students in Neuroscience, BME, advanced undergrads, post-docs, fellows, residents, faculty … all are welcome.
· New (last year) --- special events for teams to match wits with each other and guest judges to design imaging experiments on-the-fly (“Design-a-thon”!)
· New (this year!) - Michelle Hampson joins the fun to enlighten us on fMRI in addiction, to study drugs, functional connectivity!
Course Goals
· To learn to read the functional imaging literature perceptively and critically.
· To learn to recognize the primary endpoints of functional imaging studies of the brain
· To recognize commonalities in studies of drug abuse and reward and to construct a sound imaging study.
· To understand the ambiguities inherent in the analysis of functional imaging studies depending on the tracer or imaging modality.
Sampling of comments from previous years:
(These are real comments from real student eval forms)
· Overall I learned a lot about imaging and really enjoyed reading and discussing papers that [we]re outside my research area
· A great course!. I'd recommend it for students interested in PET or otherwise ….
· "A+++"
· Great! Proper methods and applications papers and detaile[ed] explanation really help[ed] me.
· Great course.
· This was a very enjoyable course -- I'm glad I can now read PET papers.
· Very helpful course; one that is stand-alone and great training for grad stuent[s] who want strong basic understanding of imaging technique
· Great environment. [instructor] guides the discussions without being too hands-on.
· A major strength was that the class was designed and conducted in a way to allow for a lot discussion.
· The syllabus was designed very thoughtfully, with each topic building upon older work.
· I appreciated that there were always useful comments on my synopses (required homework)...[instructor’s] passion; knowledge; and [] attentiveness towards the students ... [leave] no unanswered questions.
· [instructor] is really good at this. That's all I need to say.
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